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Johanna Clara Louise Lehzen (3 October 1784 – 9 September 1870), better known as Baroness Louise Lehzen, was the governess, and later adviser and companion to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. Born to a Lutheran pastor in Hanover, in 1819 Lehzen entered into the household of the Duchess of Kent and her husband Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn. Five years later, Lehzen became governess to their only child, Princess Victoria. Lehzen became strongly protective of the princess, who resided in a household dominated by the controlling Kensington System, implemented by the Duchess and her comptroller Sir John Conroy. "Dear, good Lehzen" soon came to supersede all others in Victoria's eyes, including her own mother. Victoria became second-in-line to the British throne in 1827; to prevent Victoria from being surrounded by commoners, King George IV named Lehzen a Baroness of the Kingdom of Hanover later that year. Lehzen encouraged the princess to become strong, informed, and independent from the Duchess and Conroy's influence, causing friction between the two and Lehzen. Attempts to remove the governess, who had the support of George IV, his brother William IV, and Victoria's uncle Leopold I of Belgium, were unsuccessful. When Victoria became queen in 1837, Lehzen served as a sort of unofficial private secretary, enjoying apartments adjacent to Victoria. The queen's 1840 marriage to Prince Albert led to significant changes in the royal household. Albert and Lehzen detested each other, and after an illness of the Princess Royal in 1841, Lehzen was quietly dismissed. Her close relationship to the queen came to an end, though the two continued to write letters to each other. Lehzen spent her last years in Hanover on a generous pension, dying in 1870. Historian K.D. Reynolds writes that Lehzen was a major influence on Victoria's character, in particular giving her the strength of will to survive her troubled childhood and young queenship. ==Family and early life== Johanna Clara Louise Lehzen was born in Hanover on 3 October 1784, the youngest of seven daughters and two sons of Lutheran pastor Joachim Friedrich Lehzen and his wife Melusine Palm. Forced by circumstances to work for her living since she was young, Lehzen was employed by the von Marenholtzs, an aristocratic German family, where she earned glowing references. Based on these references, Lehzen became part of the household of Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in December 1819, when she served as governess to twelve-year-old Princess Feodora of Leiningen, the daughter of the princess by her first husband, the Prince of Leiningen. Princess Victoria was married to the Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, who was, at the time, fourth in line for the British throne. Lehzen and the entire household were moved to England in 1817 so that the new Duchess of Kent's child might be born there, strengthening the child's claim to the throne. The baby was a girl, christened "Alexandrina Victoria" after her mother and her godfather, Alexander I of Russia; she would grow up to be Queen Victoria. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Louise Lehzen」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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